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Other attributes, such as enthusiasm, luck, passion, family, routine, fitness and ethics, are more important.

Call it what you want—staying power, resilience, ‘bounce-back’ ability or
grit—it is widely viewed as a desirable leadership quality. But is true
grit the predictor of success? Defined as ‘essentially self-control, the
ability to push through setbacks and difficulties,’ researchers say that ‘this
elusive quality trumps natural talent as a predictor of who was likely to
succeed and who would not.’

To be sure, an entrepreneur facing bankruptcy, repossession and destitution
might need to display true grit to get through the worst of it, and be ready to
start again. Equally, grit might drive that last ditch effort to bring home a
deal against the odds. However, in large companies there are few occasions that
require this quality.

Corporations aren’t especially known for attracting gritty people. Naomi
Shragai, a psychotherapist and business consultant, writes in a provocative
FT article that those ‘with extreme dependent personalities gravitate
towards the structure and close relationships inherent in organisations. This
can be a haven particularly for insecure or emotionally fragile individuals who
need the assurance they receive from managers to compensate for their lack of
self-belief.’

Her assessment may seem a bit harsh. But if it’s not grit that leads to
success, then what does? Financial Times | IE Corporate Learning Alliance
offers seven attributes that might have more bearing.

Enthusiasm: If, as Winston
Churchill thought, success consists of going from failure to failure
without loss of enthusiasm’ then the corporate world with its pointless innovations and jettisoned investments provides plenty of opportunities to demonstrate this quality. Outcomes are often beyond your control, so, don't take all setbacks personally. Rather, embrace the next challenge with
undiminished spirit - a project's success or failure is often just down to
luck.

Luck: Luck manifests in different ways. You might be lucky to
have benefitted from family contacts, an expensive education or because you
entered the workforce at the start of an economic boom, gaining valuable
experience and assets early on. For some, it increases in proportion to
hard work. Perhaps luckiest of all are those able
to pursue a passion.

Passion: These
lucky, passionate few benefit from that rare quality of ‘flow’ (i.e. total
absorption in their job). They don’t yearn for a career change. Nor do they
plod dutifully on until the mortgage is paid off and the kids have grown up. Chasing
the dream is far from straightforward. When British-Asian comedian Sanjeev
Bhaskar told his mother he wanted to become an actor she responded: “Son, we
pronounce that doctor”.

Family. It’s a commonplace view, but so much career success
depends on strong family bonds. Families don’t have to be conventional, but a
supportive partner and an emotionally stable family life from an early age
anchors long-term ambition, and creates resilience against failure.
Unfortunately, too much ‘grit’ is wasted on divorce, familial bitterness and
related mental health concerns.

Tolerance for the mundane. Many graduate recruits think
that their new employer wants to attract ‘the best brains.’ It doesn’t. Most
corporate jobs require high fliers to have a reasonable level of intelligence
and common sense. They should also be reliable, competent, look the
part, and not rock the boat. Much of the work they will do will be boring
and repetitive, but after 10,000 hours of it executives will have gained what’s
known as ‘experience’ which justifies their next promotion.

Physical fitness. It is not uncommon to discover that your
chief executive has enjoyed past successes on the sports field. For those less
fleet of foot, the gym has become an essential feature of working life. There’s
a reason for this. Flying
around the world to manage remote offices, for example, requires an
athlete’s stamina. Fitness also staves off colds, backaches and depression
that can derail the most determined high-flyer.

A moral compass. It sometimes seems that only psychopaths
get to the top. But the absence of personal sense of ethics often presages a more
dramatic and precipitous fall. When no-one dares to call the leader to account,
and the company’s own code of conduct is ambiguous, everything depends on one’s own
sense of right and wrong.

This article was written for FT | IE Corporate Learning Alliance. A version of this article was first published in HR Magazine.

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